I started reading One Palestine, Complete, by Tom Segev, to learn how we got to the Mess Were In. Tom Segev is a favorite author of mine. Its all too easy to blame the Brits, but, so far, the early pages arent looking too copacetic. It all leads up to the current crisis. Heres the Short Version, which I shared with a First Grade Hebrew School Teacher on Israel Independence Day, many years ago: Ask the kids, Whos got a couch, a sofa at home? Hands go up (gotta love little kids). What do you do on it? Watch TV, play video games, hang out with the family. OK: so one day, youre doing those things, the door of your house opens, another kid comes in, your age. He looks at you, and says, Hey, thats my couch. What do you do? Suggestions: fight, cut the couch in half-- then, its no good for anyone. Get a new couch, fool yourself into thinking its just as good as the old one; just try and stuff it into the space meant for one couch. Or, you can share the couch. I sent the teacher off to class. Later, waiting for the parents to pick up the kids-- this was in the old building in Portsmouth, NH, with the narrow front hall; rainy day, I think; parents and kids crowding; lots of fun, mob scene. Im standing, smiling, waving, talking. One little girl runs up to me, beckons, I kneel down. I would share the couch, she says. And runs off. See? Thats the whole deal, right there.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 04:32:17 +0000
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